Yoga Journal's Yoga for Relaxation and Meditation

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"Yoga Practice for Relaxation" helps stress slide away with restorative yoga poses that replenish your body's energy and rejuvenate your spirit. With these poses you're not working your body, but "undoing, allowing nature to restore you ... [and] the healing powers of yoga to reveal themselves to you," explains Patricia Walden, who teaches the first 30-minute session of resting poses. Your body is supported by props, such as folded blankets, a bolster, or a wall, so the stretches are not intense. The second 30-minute session, taught by Rodney Yee, emphasizes forward bends, often done seated on the floor in various positions, with your forehead and arms resting on a chair for support.

In Yoga Practice for Meditation, Rodney explains, "Meditation is awareness of posture, ease of breath, and attentiveness of the mind." Yee quietly and expertly leads you through five yoga practices that release bodily tension, improve posture, and open up breathing in the gorgeous setting of Yosemite National Park. The practice is divided into five segments: Mountain, a series that moves from pose to pose, used for making the transition from daily activities to a sitting meditation (12 minutes); Garden, gentle movements that open the hips and stretch the back (10 minutes); Tree, four sitting poses, using props to modify the poses to your personal flexibility level (10 minutes); Wind, a series with a focus on breathing, releasing tension, and relaxing deeply (10 minutes); Sky, a meditation focusing on posture and breath and "inviting the mind into the present moment, time and time again" (8 minutes). --Joan Price